I’ve been planning on doing something like this for a while. I actually have a Scrivener file on my computer with two, not one but two, versions of me starting a book about the topic of how I write and plan my stories. I also did a presentation on this topic (of which I’ll link an adapted version in this post later) back in Jan 2017, so I’ve been working on this in one form or another for nearly 3 years.
What is ‘this’ exactly? Frameworking is a method I created that isn’t really planning a story, but is more a way for people who pants (who go in without a plan) to keep their thoughts straight and prevent saggy middles in their story. It’s basically a way to make sure you pace your story well, even when you have no idea what your story is actually going to be about. It’s like a frame that you can hang things on (like when you have Christmas cards or something, or pretty things), in this case, you ‘hang’ your story ideas onto it.

With NaNoWriMo coming up soon, and watching people stress out about their story and story ideas, but also because I had to set up my new story, my next serial (the final Lughnasadh Elite Academy novella is with my beta readers right now), this seemed like a great time to talk about it.
Instead of writing long blog posts about it, or do a whole book or something, I decided to sit down and film myself talking about frameworking. The whole thing ended up being nearly 2.5 hours long. I’m not kidding. But then, people who watch my YT videos know that I can ramble, though these are low on rambling and just high on information. The idea was for it to be two half-hour videos, the first one being about the theory behind frameworking and also about how things like the 3 act structure and a romance beat sheet work (though I keep for some reason call it ‘romance structure’ in the video, not sure why), and the second video would be me applying the theory to my new serial and show what I do and how much I set up when I start a new serial (or any story). They ended up being about 1.5 and 1 hour long, I managed to cut it down to 2 hours and 11 minutes and I’ve split it into 8 parts in total, each with specific topics and goals in them. Which makes it easier to watch them and to find specific information that you would like to revisit later without having to sit through everything again.

This blog post is mostly a collection of all the videos, with a short list of the topics in each video and links to things I mention in them (like other people’s work or my own stories) so you can easily reference them.

General links you may be interested in that are mentioned a couple of times:
– Sheets from my old presentation, the videos are partially based on these: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1yIBM0jeAFyRjdRh5p4hJxldXSXFnuEPFzxpCElo4xFw/edit?usp=sharing
– NaNoWriMo, writing challenge where you write 50,000 words in a single month (November): https://www.nanowrimo.org/

Part 1: Introduction and Questions I Often Get About the Method

This part talks about:
– What is frameworking?
– How do I know how long a story will be or how it will be laid out when I have no idea what happens in it?
– Choosing story and chapter length and deciding on number of chapters in a project

Part 2: Setting Up the General Framework Method

– Scenes vs chapters, how do they relate?
– 3 act structure (+ some Hero’s Journey talk)

Part 3: Framework for Romance Novels

– Romance structure (Romance beat sheet)
– Sexual relationship entwined with romantic plot
– Combining happy scenes with ‘big drama’ to get people extra emotional
– Epilogues

Resources:
Lughnasadh Elite Academy: https://www.easilydistractedmedia.com/lughnasadh-elite-academy-series/
Writing the Romance Novel: The Seven Story Beats blog post: https://kayedacus.com/2008/04/28/writing-the-romance-novel-the-seven-story-beats/
Writing the Romantic Comedy – Billy Mernit (HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2000)
Jami Gold Romance beat sheet: https://jamigold.com/2012/11/write-romance-get-your-beat-sheet-here/

Part 4: How Do You Use Frameworking and What Do You Need

– What do you need to framework
– What are tropes
– How do you work with your key scenes
– Working towards your next important moment
– Points of view in chapters
– No clue what’s going to happen later
– Trusting your brain

Resources:
A Blooming Spring Love: https://www.easilydistractedmedia.com/a-blooming-spring-love-seasons-on-the-island-3/
Lughnasadh Elite Academy: https://www.easilydistractedmedia.com/lughnasadh-elite-academy-series/
Second Chance Mates: https://www.easilydistractedmedia.com/second-chance-mates/
The Other Dress: https://www.easilydistractedmedia.com/the-other-dress-flowers-and-keyboards-2/
Her Elysium: https://www.easilydistractedmedia.com/her-elysium-flowers-and-keyboards-1/

Part 5: Serial Writing and Structures of Serials

– Why I do serials
– How serials are set up
– How novellas within a serial are structured

Resources:
Lughnasadh Elite Academy: https://www.easilydistractedmedia.com/lughnasadh-elite-academy-series/
Shattered: https://www.easilydistractedmedia.com/shattered-damaged-hearts-1/

Part 6: Details of Serials

– Epilogues and shared worlds
– Serial episodes and where they fall on the romance beat sheet
– Example: Pregnancy progression in a serial, what episodes to hit which milestones

Resources:
Omegaverse Mates World (shared world): https://www.easilydistractedmedia.com/omegaverse-mates-world/
Second Chance Mates: https://www.easilydistractedmedia.com/second-chance-mates/
Making a Family: https://www.easilydistractedmedia.com/making-a-family/
Omegas’ Destined Alpha: https://www.easilydistractedmedia.com/omegas-destined-alpha/
The Baby Pact Trilogy: https://www.easilydistractedmedia.com/the-baby-pact/
Mated to the Alpha: https://www.easilydistractedmedia.com/mated-to-the-alpha/

Part 7: ‘Plot’ with Me

What it says on the tin. This video is purely me using the frameworking method to work on the new serial. Can/will contain spoilers, depends on how uncomfortable you are with them.
Nothing shared in this video is stuff that you won’t know after reading the very first novella of the new serial.

Part 8: Extras

This video still uses the page from the previous part and talks about some things in more detail, so that’s up to you for spoilers. But this does talk about some specific issues you may run into when you use the frameworking method and how I solve them.
– POV choices per chapter to line up with story beats
– ‘Filler’ scenes
– Moving story beats or POV around and when to do what
– Trusting the framework and your brain
– How story structures work within the serial and within each novella

I hope you enjoyed that and I hope it helped you. If you have any questions, please leave them below or under one of the Youtube videos.

Love!

<3